A workforce strategy for adult social care in England

Who has been involved in developing the Strategy?

This Workforce Strategy was developed by Skills for Care in collaboration with the entire adult social care sector, along with colleagues from health and education. It reflects the input of thousands of stakeholders. It is truly a sector-owned strategy, and we are incredibly grateful to everyone who contributed their time and insights.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has been a ‘participant and supporter’ of the development of this Strategy.  

The Workforce Strategy Steering Group has been co-chaired by Professor Oonagh Smyth and Sir David Pearson, supported by a dedicated and bold Steering Group.

Steering Group members:

  • Melanie Williams - President of Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS)
  • Professor Deborah Sturdy CBE - Chief Social Care Nurse, Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)
  • Lyn Romeo - Chief Social Worker (now retired) Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)
  • James Bullion - Interim Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care and Integrated Care, Care Quality Commission (CQC)
  • Sir David Behan CBE - Group Non-executive Director and Chairs, the Workforce, Training and Education Committee, NHS England (NHSE)
  • Daniel Mortimer - Chief Executive of NHS Employers and Deputy Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation
  • Marguerite Hogg - Senior Policy Manager for Adult Learning, Association of Colleges
  • Simon Ashworth - Director of Policy, Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP)
  • Jane Townson OBE and Professor Vic Rayner OBE - Care Provider Alliance
  • Dr Ruth Allen - CEO, British Association of Social Workers (BASW)
  • Colum Conway - CEO, Social Work England
  • Steve Ford - CEO, Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT)
  • Lynn Woolsey - Deputy Chief Nurse, Royal College of Nursing (RCN)
  • Emma Westcott - Assistant Director, Strategy, Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC)
  • Dr Agnes Fanning - Assistant Director of Nursing Programmes, Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI)
  • Melanie Weatherley MBE - Co-chair, Care Association Alliance and care provider
  • Karolina Gerlich - CEO, Care Workers’ Charity
  • Anna Severwright - Co-convener, Social Care Future
  • Dr Clenton Farquharson - Chair, Think Local Act Personal (TLAP)
  • Sam Allen - CEO, Northeast and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board 
  • Alice McGee - Chief People Officer, Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Board
  • Hazel Summers - Director Adult Social Care Improvement, Partners in Care and Health
  • Rob Webster - CEO, West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership (Integrated Care Board)
  • Gavin Edwards - Senior National Officer for Social Care, UNISON (representing unions)
  • Professor John Unsworth - Senior representative, Council of Deans of Health
  • Bill Mumford - Trustee, Skills for Care Board
  • Dara de Buca - Director, Alzheimer’s Society

 

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Workforce expectations

We worked with The King’s Fund to produce a report on workforce expectations for a strategy for adult social care. This analysis has fed into the Workforce Strategy development. The report involved an analysis of policy and literature, workshops and interviews which provided a key insight into what people working in adult social care wanted and needed from a workforce strategy. The key workforce themes which arose were around:

  • pay and conditions
  • training
  • career development
  • regulation and registration
  • equality, diversity and inclusion
  • mental and physical health
  • leadership and management.

Seven Expert Working Groups came together around a specific area of focus to bring together provider representatives, people drawing on care and support, and other stakeholders including education, health, housing and other specialists. They used an evidence base to identify challenges and make recommendations as to how these could be resolved. To do this, members of these groups spoke to their own networks and contacts regularly. Draft recommendations from the working groups then went to the Data, Economics and Evidence Workstream for review analysis and testing.

Areas of focus:

  • science, technology, AI and pharmaceuticals
  • integration
  • prevention
  • new service models and multidisciplinary working
  • recruit and retain
  • develop and train
  • leadership.

We conducted 15 roundtable discussions to gather insight for the Workforce Strategy.

These sessions brought together a diverse group of participants, including CEOs, registered managers, nominated individuals, frontline care workers, regulated professionals, those who draw on care and support, their families and carers, personal assistants, and learning providers.

We also partnered with Learning Disability England, Alzheimer's Society, and Care Rights UK for three of these events, which provided a broader and more inclusive range of perspectives and enhanced the overall quality of the feedback received.

Our goal in hosting these events was to hear what positive change people wanted to see in the sector and ask the question: ‘What does good care look like?’ The feedback we received has shaped understanding of the priorities for the Workforce Strategy and has been instrumental in refining our approach to ensure it aligns with the real needs and expectations of those involved in social care.

Hear from the Strategy Steering Group members

 

With four out of five of us needing social care at some stage in our lives, ADASS welcomes this strategy to develop a first-class, skilled workforce to deliver care and support to the growing numbers of us needing increasingly complex care.

To make this plan a reality, we need our new Government to commit to working with local councils and the wider adult social care sector to bring pay, terms and conditions to a level where care workers are properly valued, and we make social care an aspirational career choice.

Anna Hemmings
CEO, ADASS

 

The adult social care workforce is 1.59 million strong and provides some of the most essential services in our society to people, families and communities.  CQC support and value the irreplaceable contribution that these care workers, care leaders and social care professionals make to services and people’s lives every day.

We welcome the work that Skills for Care has overseen on the development of the sector-led workforce strategy, and have fed into the detail of the findings and recommendations. We support the need for a national workforce strategy for social care, alongside the NHS workforce strategy, to give parity of approach – and this has been a consistent message from CQC in recent years.

We set this work on workforce in the wider context of social care reform – where we have called for investment and long term sustainability for the sector, and better access to support to create a fairer system - and can see the contribution that effective regulation can play in improvement and assurance.

The Adult Social Care Workforce Strategy is a call to action for all of us to ensure that we have a healthy, skilled and enabled workforce now and in the future to continue delivering high quality and compassionate care.  We look forward to working closely with Skills for Care and other key partners on ensuring successful delivery of the ambitions outlined in the Strategy.

James Bullion
Interim Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care and Integrated Care, Care Quality Commission (CQC)

 

NHS England welcomes the recommendations set out in the social care Workforce Strategy published today - we look forward to working with Skills for Care and system partners to support this important work.

The strategy is aligned with our NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, that sets out actions to deliver a sustainable NHS workforce and meet the needs of our patients today and in the future.

Navina Evans
Chief Workforce Officer, NHS England

 

It is an exciting step forward that for the first time ever, the adult social care sector has come together to develop a strong and effective workforce strategy, and I am pleased to have been part of the steering group.

We desperately need a long-term adult social care workforce strategy to ensure that we have the right people with the right skills, in the right place, to provide the best possible care and support for the people who draw on it. Our further education colleges have a big role to play here, and the strategy calls for a three-year funding plan for training, which we hope would be part of the development of a new skills strategy.

For this strategy to really drive forward positive change, it needs engagement, alignment and support from local and national governments, and across the sector.

Marguerite Hogg
Senior Policy Manager for Adult Learning, Association of Colleges

 

We're proud to have worked on this new Workforce Strategy for Adult Social Care in England. It’s high time that our social care workforce got attention and recognition for their vital role in not only supporting vulnerable people with daily living, but also preventing loss of quality of life.

The strategy aligns with and complements our first ever UK-wide occupational therapy workforce strategy, which we launched earlier this year, and we will be incorporating its principles when advocating for and implementing our own strategy.

Investing in the social care workforce, which includes occupational therapists and the occupational therapy support workforce, means we can help people manage their health and daily living as well as living in a home environment that is safe and supports their quality of life. If people have the right support at home, it reduces the pressure on an already-stretched healthcare service and workforce, saving money and reducing waiting lists.

Our members working in social care often tell us about the disparity between an occupational therapy career in social care compared to one in healthcare. We hope that this strategy signals the start of national efforts to more closely align the social care workforce with those working in healthcare.

Karin Orman
Director of Practice and Innovation at the Royal College of Occupational Therapists

 

We welcome the launch of this Workforce Strategy, which is vital if we are to tackle the adult social care crisis in the UK. The social care sector faces a number of challenges, including high vacancy rates, high staff turnover, few opportunities for career progression and low pay.

As a nation we need to recognise of the importance of the social care workforce, pay social care workers better, standardise training and regulate the profession in the same way as nurses, doctors and teachers. The adoption of a new workforce strategy is the first step on the road to achieving these goals.

Melanie Weatherley MBE
Co-chair, Care Association Alliance

 

This Workforce Strategy is an incredible achievement, showcasing how the sector can come together to address both short and long-term needs. Care workers are hard-working and skilled professionals who deliver essential services to those drawing on social care. They deserve recognition, respect, and pay levels that reflect the responsibilities of their role.

We are pleased to see plans for retaining experienced care workers who are experts in their field, as well as a framework for training and development to help care workers feel valued and supported. We hope the new government will recognise the extensive work that has gone into consulting with people across the sector and implement this Strategy as soon as possible.

This Strategy can help transform the public perception of care and care workers. It is a great starting point for future conversations on what the adult social care workforce needs to ensure wellbeing for the workforce and those they support.

Karolina Gerlich
CEO, The Care Workers' Charity

 

One of the core purposes of an integrated care system is the vision to ensure that our population and staff get the best care and experience of health and care. We know that increased demand and changing perceptions of health and care means that relying on models of care and working in silos is not going to deliver the care we need and all want to deliver.

The Workforce Strategy for Adult Social Care in England sets out the needs, the ambitions and the rational for doing better for our workforce and our population. The ambition is clear and the critical success will be for all of those in health and care to embrace the Strategy and turn it into reality, this is an exciting time to be part of health and care.

Alice McGee
Chief People Officer, Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Board

 

Alzheimer’s Society is delighted to have been a partner in developing the Workforce Strategy for Adult Social Care in England and is pleased mandatory dementia training is included as one of the strategy’s important recommendations.

People with dementia are among the biggest users of social care - making up around 60% of those who draw upon home care in the UK and 70% of residents of older age residential care homes in England.

However, alarmingly, only 45% of care staff are recorded as having received a form of dementia training – and little is known about the quality of this. So, this recommendation marks an important, and notable, step in the right direction.

To achieve real impact for the almost one million people living with dementia in the UK, a figure expected to rise to 1.4m by 2030, it is now imperative that this recommendation is taken forward at pace so that everyone with the condition receives the best standard of care.

That’s why we’re calling on the new UK Government to adopt the Workforce Strategy and implement mandatory dementia training for the care workforce in England. This will help to ensure the care system is set up to provide quality, personalised care that is delivered by a well-trained and supported workforce.

Dara de Buca
Director, Alzheimer’s Society

 

Adult social care is the greatest job in the world and for the first time in my career we have a social care Workforce Strategy that we can unite behind and build upon as one sector.

Carolyn Nice
ADASS National Workforce Lead and Director of Adults, Health & Wellbeing, Stockton on Tees Borough Council
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Summary of recommendations

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Introduction